Lena laughed. “I got spares if you need them. Let’s go and settle you.”
Vicki wondered if she’d ever feel settled again, then made up her mind that she would. Compared to the past year, this was a small challenge. Feeling better, she followed her aunt upstairs.
Lena was the bookkeeper for Freitag’s Mercantile. She often joked that there was little as boring in the world as a bookkeeper, unless it was a CPA. Vicki, who found her aunt anything but dull, always smiled or laughed, but she didn’t believe it. Besides, boring jobs sounded awfully good these days. For her part, until Hal’s death, she’d taught kindergarten, but there wasn’t a job available here yet.
Which was fine, she told herself as she fed Krys her breakfast, after Lena departed for a half day. Vicki wanted to spend as much time as possible with Krys, until the girl was truly settled here. In the meantime, Vicki had plenty in savings from insurance and death benefits, plus the money she and Hal had been saving toward a house. She could get by for years if necessary.
She had to deal with the present. Sitting at the table with Krys, who looked a lot perkier today, she said, “How about we set up your bedroom and playroom this morning?”
Krys tilted her head, her blue eyes bright. “Okay. I can tell you where to put everything?”
“Most of it, anyway. We’ll have to see how things fit.”
“Aunt Lena has lots of stuff.”
Vicki nodded guiltily. Lena had assured her there was ample room, and in terms of space, there was. The problem was that this house had accumulated so much over the years that the space was pretty full. With her additions, it was packed.
“We may not be able to get everything just right,” she told her daughter. “We’ll have to see where there’s room.”
Krys nodded and emptied her bowl by drinking the last of the milk from it. Vicki reached over with her napkin to wipe away a milky mustache and a few dribbles.
“Are there kids here?” her daughter asked as they headed upstairs.
“Plenty, I’m sure. Once we get some unpacking done, we’ll go look for some.”
“’Kay. I liked that man. He’s coming back, right?”
“Yes, to help with moving.” Dan Casey, another cop. Didn’t it just figure? And even in her dulled state, Vicki had noticed how attractive he was. Well, that was best buried immediately. No more cops ever, and moving on didn’t mean she was ready to dive into some relationship, anyway.
Time. She needed more time. Whoever had decided that a year was enough time for mourning evidently had never really mourned.
She pushed aside her mood and focused on enjoying Krys’s excitement. For the little girl, opening boxes and rediscovering treasures that had been steadily packed away over the past few weeks seemed to be almost like Christmas morning. Every rediscovered belonging, no matter how old or familiar, was greeted as if it were brand-new.
The child’s excitement was contagious, and Vicki joined in wholeheartedly. The bedroom was relatively easy. Lena had gotten rid of everything except a decent chest of drawers, and with Krys’s bed and the Boston rocker, all they needed to do was unpack clothes and books, and some of the stuffed animals Krys wanted in the room with her.
The playroom turned into a bigger challenge. It already contained a narrow bed, a chest and a bureau. Vicki moved the bed over against the wall, thinking that she could probably cover it with pillows and a spread, and turn it into a daybed. Krys slowed down a little, having to decide where each and every toy should go.
Vicki didn’t rush her. They weren’t going anywhere soon, and the child might as well enjoy whatever control she could over a life that had changed so drastically.
It amazed Vicki anew the number of toys Krys had, even though she herself had packed them. She and Hal had tried never to overindulge their daughter, but during the past year that had gone out the window. So often one of Hal’s colleagues would stop by bearing a gift. It was well-meant, but now Krys had way too many toys.
But she had refused to part with a single one, and Vicki hadn’t had the heart to disagree with her. Krys had lost too much, the move was a huge change, and if she needed every one of those toys for comfort, then they came along.
By noon, when Lena returned, they were only halfway through the unpacking, and Vicki suspected that Krys was dawdling a little. Getting tired or getting overwhelmed? She couldn’t really tell, and the child didn’t have the self-awareness yet to define why she was slowing down.
“Lunchtime,” Lena called up from the foot of the stairs.
Krys seemed glad of the break and hurried down. Vicki took a little longer, freshening a bit in the bathroom and wishing she had a window into her daughter’s head. Even teaching kindergarten, she sometimes found youngsters this age to be inscrutable mysteries. You could tell when something was wrong, but you couldn’t always find out what the problem was.
Krys wanted her leftover hamburger, and seemed to enjoy it even after a trip through the microwave. Lena and Vicki ate ham on rye.
“Dan called this morning. He got a half day, too, and should be over soon. I guess I need to figure out what I want moved where.”
“Lena...”
Her aunt shook her head. “No. Don’t say it. I made most of the decisions already, once you agreed to come. Vicki, believe me, I wouldn’t have kept pestering you to come here if I thought it was going to be inconvenient.”
“But—”
“Hush. We’re both going to do some adapting. It’s not a major crisis.”
Vicki wasn’t entirely certain about that, but decided to let it go unless a crisis blew up on its own.
When Dan arrived, Vicki and Krystal were pretty much relegated to the front porch swing. Lena wanted to label items that needed to be moved according to where she wanted them, and Dan accompanied her, taking notes to determine how much help he’d need.
“I could hire some people,” Vicki said at one point.
Dan merely gave her a wry look. “Don’t offend me.”
How was she supposed to take that? All she knew was that a big handsome man was moving in on her life. Her attraction to him made her feel a bit uneasy, and she quickly squashed it. Krystal yawned and curled up on the swing with her head in her mother’s lap. That effectively put Vicki out of the action.
It was a perfect day, however. A gentle breeze blew, and the temperature was somewhere in the midseventies. For a Texan it felt like spring, but this was summer in Wyoming. With her hand resting on Krystal’s shoulder, Vicki pushed the swing gently and decided to accept her exile from all the doings inside.
It was Lena’s house, and it would be handled Lena’s way.
* * *
It was nearly four when Dan emerged and went around the corner to the garage. He returned a few minutes later with two folding lawn chairs and set them on the porch. Lena appeared a little while later with a pitcher of lemonade and glasses full of ice on a tray. Krystal barely stirred. Evidently she was worn-out, whether from all the activity earlier, from the trip or from the changes, Vicki couldn’t guess. She let her daughter sleep on.
“Okay,” said Lena. “That’s half the battle done.”
“Which half?” asked Vicki.
“Everything’s labeled that I want gone. Some for basement storage, but a lot for the garage.” She grinned. “I’m going to have a big garage sale. Gawd, I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”
Dan laughed